Baby Steps
by teddylupin-snape
Summary: Drabble collection of bonding moments between Lily, James, and baby Harry. For Rochelle.
1. Chapter 1

**For Rochelle. I wish you, Colin, and Alexis the best of luck, very happy times together, and as much sleep as you can manage. I love you, darling!**

**This was inspired by a post on tumblr by the lovely snapslikethis ( post/85966513976/snapslikethis-fifty-things-baby-harry) who gave me permission to use it in this fic, so major thanks to her! I definitely recommend checking out her blog, she's got some amazing marauders headcanon that inspires me to no end.**

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i

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"James, are you coming to bed?" Lily called from their room. She'd gotten home late and hadn't even checked in to see if Harry was asleep before going to sleep herself. "James!"

Sighing when she received no response, she pulled herself back off of bed and headed downstairs to the sitting room.

There she saw James, sleeping on the sofa under an old quilt her grandmother had made, and, coming closer, noticed Harry nestled between him and the back cushions. The latter was smiling softly. _At least he's asleep_, she thought to herself, recalling the horrible experiences that bedtime had been the past few days now that Harry's learned to resist.

Grinning at her boys, she stepped closer to remove James' glasses. As Lily placed them on the coffee table, James opened his eyes groggily, looking around. "Do this often?" She asked him lightly.

He shrugged. "Think I should get him back to his cot?"

"If you can do it without waking him up." Lily eyed him in a way that clearly said 'if you wake him up now you'll be the one to get him back to sleep, not me.'

"I think we'll just stay down here tonight. You go get some sleep." Lily nodded, raising her eyebrows as James slid back onto the sofa in the same relative position as he was before, replacing the quilt over himself and Harry. To her surprise – or was it relief? – Harry didn't stir and she returned to her bedroom alone, smiling to herself as she thought of the two of them downstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

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"Harry, leave the poor cat alone!"

"Pulling its tail _again_?" Lily sighed, then, to Harry,Har added, "Be nice to the kitty, Harry."

"S'fun!"

"Not for him," she responded, gently prying the old cat's tail from Harry's chubby fingers and pulling a few of his toys closer to distract him.

"Poor kitty," James muttered, petting the cat softly to compensate for Harry's less-than-gentle previous approach. "Used to it by now, since Harry won't let up. We could always get him a dog. I feel like a dog would be more willing to play with him. Harry's lonely, Lils."

She skeptically raised an eyebrow. "There's no way we're getting a dog, James. We've got Sirius if he wants a dog."

"A _real_ dog, Lily," James pleaded.

"He could easily pass for a real dog. Remember when I first found out about it?"

James fondly recalled Lily asking where James had gotten such a sweet dog, Sirius jumping onto her lap and licking her face (he still cringed at that) as she pet him.

"Harry could tell the difference, he's been around Padfoot so much."

"_No_, James."

Despite her tone, he could've sworn he saw her smile as she turned her back on him to catch Harry with the cat's tail in hand again.


	3. Chapter 3

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Lily glanced down. Where, not five minutes before, Harry had been smiling widely and looking around the cozy, familiar sitting room of Bathilda's house, he now sat with his head resting on Lily's chest and eyes closed, breathing heavily.

She grinned at him, brushing his hair out of his face with a steady hand. "Sorry, Bathilda, he's due for a nap. Next week, then?"

"Of course, dear. I'll walk you out."

"That'd be lovely, thank you." She grabbed her cloak from the back of her chair – though she didn't necessarily need it for the short walk here but brought nonetheless – not putting it on now because of Harry sleeping in her arms, and followed Bathilda to the front door.

"When's James meant to come home?"

"I dunno. Dumbledore's got him on guard duty for something or other, but I couldn't tell you how long he'll be out. I'm hoping he's back sooner rather than later, obviously. But Remus and Peter've been coming by, which helps. Look at me, I sound desperate. He's only been out two days, I'm fine. It's getting Harry to sleep that's the problem…

"Speaking of, I should really get going, he's heavy." She smiled. "See you next week, thanks for the tea." Lily crossed the threshold and went straight home, the wind cold and harsh on her bare face.


	4. Chapter 4

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"Harry, sweetheart, wake up!" Lily cooed over him. She'd been considering letting him sleep – they had nowhere to go, after all – but that would only make it take longer for him to take his nap and they needed for him to take his nap as usual.

James stood at her side, lifting Harry's blanket off his curled-up form and grinning. Harry pulled himself up using the side of his cot, smiling a gummy smile back at them. He spread his arms for James to pick him up.

James did so, lifting Harry above his head and bringing him back down again before laying him down to change his nappy. James was more enthusiastic about taking care of a baby than Lily'd anticipated, especially when it came to changing Harry. He was rather good at it, too, apart from his first attempt when he'd wanted to use magic to remove the dirty nappy and put on a clean one, at which point Lily enforced the rule "No magic is to be used on Harry." That didn't stop James, but he learned to keep his wand clear of Harry while in Lily's sight.

Either way, James was doing his share when it came for caring for Harry, so Lily couldn't complain, could she?

(The answer being yes, that by living in a house with James – and a miniature version of both James _and_ Lily combined – she learned to take things one day at a time)


End file.
